REALTIME COLLAGE BY KALEN HOLLOMON

Combining the elements of street photography and found imagery, artist Kalen Hollomon assembles real time collage constructions in and around New York City. Hollomon’s images preserve fleeting moments, whilst providing a new contextual setting for readymade visual material. His series ‘Realtime Collages’ presents a take on photomontage that evolves the frequently-revisited modern art technique,with the artist taking to the streets to construct visual interactions with unsuspecting people and places. Cut-outs of found imagery and clippings from retro magazines have been carefully prepared to confuse the overall perception of his final frame. Hollomon toys with rough edges and carefully cut lines–often, the layers of the image can only be identified when a viewer notices the thumb and forefinger of the artist, holding up the printed image in front of a new background. By preserving this performative exploration of collage, Hollomon challenges the way a viewer might take for granted what they perceive in a photographed image. The artist explains, “I am always concerned with what lies beneath the surface–I hope to create conversation that is rooted in questions related to learned social rules, identity, the subtext of everyday situations and perception.”